Limehouse Studios

Limehouse Studios was an independently-owned television studio complex built in No. 10 Warehouse (30 Shed) of the South Quay Import Dock. This was located at the eastern end of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs in London, which opened in 1983. The building was demolished just six years later, in 1989, to make way for the massive Olympia & York development of Canary Wharf which now occupies the site.

The warehouse was built for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Island fruit trade. At their request, the wharf was given the name "Canary Wharf". The company moved to Millwall Docks, in 1970.

One of the first successes of the London Docklands Development Corporation, the studios were housed in the immensely strong converted shell of a disused rum and banana warehouse built in 1952. At a cost of about £3.6m, and under the design of Terry Farrell, this was transformed into a complex containing two studios of convert|3000|sqft|m2|0 and convert|6000|sqft|m2|0 and various associated production offices and post-production facilities. The two studios were contained in suspended concrete boxes mounted on independent giant springs to reduce external vibration, and the whole complex was fitted out to the highest standards. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46497 "The West India Docks: The buildings: warehouses", Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 284-300] accessed: 22 July 2008]

As one of the then few independent facilities in London, founded by a group of executives from the former Southern Television after that company had lost its ITV franchise in 1981, the new studios quickly became the venue of choice for many of the independent production companies now making programmes for the new Channel 4, helped also by the popular hospitality boat moored alongside in the dock. Among the many programmes made at the studios at that time were "Who Dares Wins" (1983–88); "Treasure Hunt" (1983–89), including a celebrity episode in 1985 where the studio itself was the final "treasure" location; Janet Street-Porter's (1987) "yoof tv" series "Network 7"; and the first series of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" with Clive Anderson in 1989. The studios were also the home for the first nine series of "Spitting Image" from 1984 to 1989, for ITV.

In 1988, the building was sold to Olympia and York for £25m. Following their eviction in 1989, the owners moved all the equipment they could to the former Lee International Studios at Wembley (now the Fountain Studios). But the Limehouse name disappeared when the parent company Trilion collapsed three years later.

References

External links

* [http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/independent%20studios.htm#limehouse Limehouse Studios] unofficial history
* [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/organisation/36478 Limehouse Productions] profile by the BFI